A Basic Science Fiction Library

The first year James Gunn offered the Intensive English Institute on the Teaching of Science Fiction, a teacher from Buffalo, New York, asked him how many books a teacher should read in order to have a sound background for the teaching of science fiction: "I said, offhand, about a hundred books and gave her a list prepared by a committee of the Science Fiction Writers of America and published, together with a commentary by Alexei Panshin, in the June 15, 1970, issue of Library Journal. Since then more than 30,000 books have been published and the list is dated. Below is my own list and my own comments. Though based on the original SFWA list, my list has deletions and additions, for the period not only after, but before 1970. An earlier version of this list also was published in Library Journal, November 15, 1988."